Who Turned Out the Lights?
by patentedpineapples
Summary: In which Sora gets a real kick out of drive forms and things go horribly wrong.


Darkness.

It engulfs, suffocating. And there is cold, god is it cold. A cold so searing that it burns more than the whitest hot flame ever would. He can feel it inside, clawing its way out. It spreads, devouring his organs and crawling under his skin. The shadowy essence wraps itself around his nerves, circling all the way down his arms to his fingertips, down his legs to the tips of his toes.

It festers within his lungs, slithering up the length of his esophagus. He can feel it rising up to his throat like bile, but it isn't hot and wet - it's ice. Finally, it writhes and wriggles out through his mouth and oozes out of every pore of his body.

But, the darkness can do nothing more than mix with that already in the void around him. The pain is unrelenting.

In this vacuum he cannot move or speak or even breathe. Thinking seems impossible as well, not a single thought can race through his mind - there is only feeling. The senses taking in every agonizing aspect of the darkness teeming around him. And as the darkness tears his insides out, he wants to scream, but cannot. If there was a ever a reason to wish for death - to truly yearn for it - this unyielding pain was that reason.

A muffled sound materializes - distant, yet close. Soon, the sound becomes clearer, clearer - it's a voice. The voice becomes an unintelligible mutter then transforms itself into speech. A single word. Over and over.

Sora.

"Sora!"

Two eyes shoot open. Sora can breathe, better than that, he can see. The darkness has dissipated; the only feeling remaining is a faint soreness in his joints. This reprieve a welcome blessing. In front of his face is a dog, one he's all too familiar with.

"Are you alright?" Goofy asks.

Was he alright? Of course not. But, Sora isn't about to say that. He blinks in quick succession a few times, still familiarizing himself with the brightness of daylight. Goofy frowns.

An answer, right, Goofy definitely wanted an answer. "I'm fine."

The frown stays. Uh-oh. Not good enough.

"Really," Sora adds.

But, he wasn't so sure himself.

Sora had not felt quite right ever since he, Donald, and Goofy had woken up in Twilight Town. Of course, he'd brushed it off as having something to do with the fact that the trio had been asleep for an entire year.

Fast forward a bit and the three of them had arrived in the tower of Yen Sid, King Mickey's esteemed teacher. He had prepped them for their journey, as had the three fairies. The fairies had given him new clothes, pretty spiffy ones too in Sora's opinion. On top of that, there were the drive forms.

He was reluctant to use them at first, but after a while, he was starting to wish he could stay in drive form all the time. It was the extra speed, the boost of strength - it was so exhilarating. There was a rush that came with it. The absolute power felt fantastic.

When Sora, Donald, and Goofy reached Agrabah, he discovered a downside - something the fairies hadn't told him. He dubbed it Anti-form.

It was a lack of control, a complete loss of all of his faculties. Sora was paralyzed, but his limbs were still moving. He could still feel the power, incredible strength and impossible speed and a vicious need to attack with every ounce of energy his body possessed. The first transformation hadn't been so awful, though. Sora was still there. He could see and smell and hear and feel everything happening to him. But, it was as if his limbs were being controlled, he'd become a puppet like Pinocchio. He tried to fight back, but his efforts were useless.

If using the drive forms meant he would lose control on occasion, well hell, it was definitely worth it. He was the keyblade wielder after all, he could handle it. But after that, it got worse.

Each metamorphosis brought uncertainty with it. The second time Anti-form manifested itself was dizzying and there had been no battle between himself and whatever was taking over that time. Any sense of control Sora had held onto before had vanished.

Of course, he never told Donald or Goofy - he wouldn't, couldn't.

Every transformation afterwards robbed him of another sense. Eyesight went first, then smell, and so on. Before long, he could hardly tell what was going on. It seemed more like a bad dream than anything. Eventually, the darkness had taken over completely.


End file.
